From the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, a personal meditation on the
quest for objective reality in natural science
A century ago, thoughtful people questioned how reality could agree with
physical theories that keep changing, from a mechanical model of the
ether to electric and magnetic fields, and from homogeneous matter to
electrons and atoms. Today, concepts like dark matter and dark energy
further complicate and enrich the search for objective reality. The
Whole Truth is a personal reflection on this ongoing quest by one of
the world's most esteemed cosmologists.
What lies at the heart of physical science? What are the foundational
ideas that inform and guide the enterprise? Is the concept of objective
reality meaningful? If so, do our established physical theories usefully
approximate it? P. J. E. Peebles takes on these and other big questions
about the nature of science, drawing on a lifetime of experience as a
leading physicist and using cosmology as an example. He traces the
history of thought about the nature of physical science since Einstein,
and succinctly lays out the fundamental working assumptions. Through a
careful examination of the general theory of relativity, Einstein's
cosmological principle, and the theory of an expanding universe, Peebles
shows the evidence that we are discovering the nature of reality in
successive approximations through increasingly rigorous scrutiny.
A landmark work, The Whole Truth is essential reading for anyone
interested in the practice of science.
